In Roman
mythology, the larvae or lemures (singular lemur) were the
spectres or spirits of the dead; they were the malignant version of
the lares. Some Roman
writers describe lemures as the common name for all the spirits of
the dead, and divide them into two classes: the lares, or the
benevolent souls of the family, which haunted and guarded the domus
or household, and the larvae, or the restless and fearful souls of
wicked men. But the more common idea was that the Lemures and
Larvae were the same. They were said to wander about at night and
to torment and frighten the living.

On May 9, 11, and 13, the Lemuralia
or Lemuria,
the feast of the Lemures, occurred, when black beans were offered to the Larvae in
the hopes of propitiating them; loud noises were also used to
frighten them away.

Lemurs were so named
by Linnaeus
for their big eyes, nocturnal habits and unearthly noises they make
at night. Some species of lemur were identified by their calls
before scientists had seen individuals.

Singular

The singular form of larvae is larva in both
Latin and
English.
The singular of lemures is lemur in both languages; Dungeons
& Dragons and some other fantasy worlds have adopted the
back
formation lemure as the singular, following English singularization rules
and therefore presumably pronounced as demure, immure, etc.

At the Original Video Animation (OVA) of the anime Vampire Princess Miyu
(80's),Larva appears as her shinma (a hybrid of God and devil
being) companion. Larva's friend, that appears during the 3rd
episode of the series is called Lemures.